The name Wati tends to be used when considering the various varieties to be distinct languages, Western Desert when considering them dialects of a single language, or Wati as Wanman plus the Western Desert cluster.

The Western Desert Language consists of a network of closely related dialects; the names of some of these have become quite well known (such as Pitjantjatjara) and are often referred to as 'languages'.[4] As the whole group of dialects that constitutes the language does not have its own name it is usually referred to as the Western Desert Language. WDL speakers referring to the overall language use various terms including wangka 'language' or wangka yuti 'clear speech'. For native speakers, the language is mutually intelligible across its entire range.

Other names associated with Western Desert though they may not be distinct varieties include Dargudi (Targudi), Djalgandi (Djalgadjara), Kiyajarra (Giyadjara), Nakako, Nana (Nganawongka), Waljen, Wirdinya, and perhaps Mudalga.

The Western Desert Language has thousands of speakers, making it one of the strongest indigenous Australian languages. The language is still being transmitted to children and has substantial amounts of literature, particularly in the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara dialects in South Australia where there was formerly a long-running bilingual program.

In the following tables of the WDL sound system, symbols in boldface give a typical practical orthography used by many WDL communities. Further details of orthographies in use in different areas are given below. Phonetic values in IPA are shown in [square brackets].

As shown in the chart, the WDL distinguishes five positions of articulation, and has oral and nasal occlusives at each position. The stops have no phonemicvoice distinction but display voiced and unvoiced allophones; stops are usually unvoiced at the beginning of a word, and voiced elsewhere. In both positions, they are usually unaspirated. There are no fricative consonants.

While the dialects of the WDL have very similar phonologies there are several different orthographies in use, resulting from the preferences of the different early researchers as well as the fact that the WDL region extends into three states (Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory), with each having its own history of language research and educational policy.

Most of the peoples of central Australia have (or at one point had) signed forms of their languages. Among the Western Desert peoples, sign language has been reported specifically for Kardutjara and Yurira Watjalku,[6] Ngaatjatjarra (Ngada),[7] and Manjiljarra. Signed Kardutjara and Yurira Watjalku are known to have been well-developed, though it is not clear from records that signed Ngada and Manjiljarra were.[8]

^Miller, Wick R. (1978). A report on the sign language of the Western Desert (Australia). Reprinted in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, 1978, vol. 2, pp. 435–440.

1.
Australia
–
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia

2.
Western Australia
–
Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Southern Ocean to the south, the state has about 2.6 million inhabitants, around 11% of the national total. 92% of the lives in the south-west corner of the state. The first European visitor to Western Australia was the Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, the first European settlement of Western Australia occurred following the landing by Major Edmund Lockyer on 26 December 1826 of an expedition on behalf of the New South Wales colonial government. This was followed by the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829, including the site of the present-day capital, york was the first inland settlement in Western Australia. Situated 97 kilometres east of Perth, it was settled on 16 September 1831, Western Australia achieved responsible government in 1890, and federated with the other British colonies in Australia in 1901. Today its economy relies on mining, agriculture and tourism. The state produces 46% of Australias exports, Western Australia is the second-largest iron ore producer in the world. The International Hydrographic Organization designates the body of water south of the continent as part of the Indian Ocean, the total length of the states eastern border is 1,862 km. There are 20,781 km of coastline, including 7,892 km of island coastline, the total land area occupied by the state is 2.5 million km2. Most of the state is a low plateau with an elevation of about 400 metres, very low relief. This descends relatively sharply to the plains, in some cases forming a sharp escarpment. The extreme age of the landscape has meant that the soils are remarkably infertile, even soils derived from granitic bedrock contain an order of magnitude less available phosphorus and only half as much nitrogen as soils in comparable climates in other continents. Soils derived from extensive sandplains or ironstone are even less fertile, nearly devoid of soluble phosphate and also deficient in zinc, copper, molybdenum, the infertility of most of the soils has required heavy application by farmers of chemical fertilisers, particularly superphosphate, insecticides and herbicides. These have resulted in damage to invertebrate and bacterial populations, the grazing and use of hoofed mammals and, later, heavy machinery through the years have resulted in compaction of soils and great damage to the fragile soils. Large-scale land clearing for agriculture has damaged habitats for native flora, large areas of the states wheatbelt region have problems with dryland salinity and the loss of fresh water. The southwest coastal area has a Mediterranean climate and it was originally heavily forested, including large stands of karri, one of the tallest trees in the world. This agricultural region is one of the nine most bio-diverse terrestrial habitats, thanks to the offshore Leeuwin Current, the area is one of the top six regions for marine biodiversity and contains the most southerly coral reefs in the world

3.
South Australia
–
South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country, with a total land area of 983,482 square kilometres, it is the fourth-largest of Australias states and territories. Other population centres in the state are relatively small, the state comprises less than 8 percent of the Australian population and ranks fifth in population among the six states and two territories. The majority of its people reside in Adelaide, most of the remainder are settled in fertile areas along the south-eastern coast and River Murray. The states colonial origins are unique in Australia as a settled, planned British province. Official settlement began on 28 December 1836, when the colony was proclaimed at the Old Gum Tree by Governor John Hindmarsh, as with the rest of the continent, the region had been long occupied by Aboriginal peoples, who were organised into numerous tribes and languages. The first British settlement to be established was Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, on 26 July 1836, the guiding principle behind settlement was that of systematic colonisation, a theory espoused by Edward Gibbon Wakefield that was later employed by the New Zealand Company. The goal was to establish the province as a centre of civilisation for free immigrants, promising civil liberties, although its history is marked by economic hardship, South Australia has remained politically innovative and culturally vibrant. Today, it is known for its wine and numerous cultural festivals. The states economy is dominated by the agricultural, manufacturing and mining industries, the state has an increasingly significant finance sector as well. Evidence of human activity in South Australia dates back as far as 20,000 years, with flint mining activity, in addition wooden spears and tools were made in an area now covered in peat bog in the South East. Kangaroo Island was inhabited long before the island was cut off by rising sea levels, thijssen named his discovery Pieter Nuyts Land, after the highest ranking individual on board. The complete coastline of South Australia was first mapped by Matthew Flinders, the land which now forms the state of South Australia was claimed for Britain in 1788 as part of the colony of New South Wales. Although the new colony included almost two-thirds of the continent, early settlements were all on the eastern coast and it took more than forty years before any serious proposal to establish settlements in the south-western portion of New South Wales were put forward. In 1834, the British Parliament passed the South Australia Act 1834, the act stated that 802,511 square kilometres would be allotted to the colony and it would be convict-free. In contrast to the rest of Australia, terra nullius did not apply to the new province, although the patent guaranteed land rights under force of law for the indigenous inhabitants it was ignored by the South Australian Company authorities and squatters. Settlement of seven vessels and 636 people was made at Kingscote on Kangaroo Island. The first immigrants arrived at Holdfast Bay in November 1836, the Colonisation Commissioners intended to establish a police service as soon as misconduct within the increasing population warranted it

4.
Northern Territory
–
The Northern Territory is a federal Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. It shares borders with Western Australia to the west, South Australia to the south, to the north, the territory is bordered by the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Despite its large area—over 1,349,129 square kilometres, the Northern Territorys population of 244,000 makes it the least populous of Australias eight major states and territories, having fewer than half as many people as Tasmania. The archaeological history of the Northern Territory begins over 40,000 years ago when Indigenous Australians settled the region, makassan traders began trading with the indigenous people of the Northern Territory for trepang from at least the 18th century onwards. The coast of the territory was first seen by Europeans in the 17th century, the British were the first Europeans to attempt to settle the coastal regions. After three failed attempts to establish a settlement, success was achieved in 1869 with the establishment of a settlement at Port Darwin. Today the economy is based on tourism, especially Kakadu National Park in the Top End and the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in central Australia, the capital and largest city is Darwin. The population is not concentrated in regions but rather along the Stuart Highway. The other major settlements are Palmerston, Alice Springs, Katherine, Nhulunbuy, residents of the Northern Territory are often known simply as Territorians and fully as Northern Territorians, or more informally as Top Enders and Centralians. With the coming of the British, there were four attempts to settle the harsh environment of the northern coast. The Northern Territory was part of colonial New South Wales from 1825 to 1863, except for a time from February to December 1846. It was part of South Australia from 1863 to 1911, under the administration of colonial South Australia, the overland telegraph was constructed between 1870 and 1872. A railway was built between Palmerston and Pine Creek between 1883 and 1889. The economic pattern of raising and mining was established so that by 1911 there were 513,000 cattle. Victoria River Downs was at one time the largest cattle station in the world, gold was found at Grove Hill in 1872 and at Pine Creek, Brocks Creek, Burrundi, and copper was found at Daly River. On 1 January 1911, a decade after federation, the Northern Territory was separated from South Australia, alfred Deakin opined at this time To me the question has been not so much commercial as national, first, second, third and last. Either we must accomplish the peopling of the territory or submit to its transfer to some other nation. In late 1912 there was growing sentiment that the name Northern Territory was unsatisfactory, the names Kingsland, Centralia and Territoria were proposed with Kingsland becoming the preferred choice in 1913

5.
Kalgoorlie
–
The town was founded in 1893 during the Coolgardie gold rush, and is located close to the so-called Golden Mile. It is also the destination of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme. At June 2015, Kalgoorlie, had an urban population of 32,797. The name Kalgoorlie is derived from the Wangai word Karlkurla, meaning place of the silky pears, in January 1893, prospectors Patrick Hannan, Tom Flanagan, and Dan OShea were travelling to Mount Youle when one of their horses cast a shoe. During the halt in their journey, the men noticed signs of gold in the area and decided to stay and investigate. On 17 June 1893, Hannan filed a Reward Claim, leading to hundreds of men swarming to the area in search of gold and Kalgoorlie, the population of the town was 2,018 in 1898. The concentrated area of gold mines surrounding the original Hannans find is often referred to as the Golden Mile. In 1901 the population of Kalgoorlie was 4,793 which increased to 6,790 by 1903, the standardisation of the railway connecting Perth in 1968 completed the Sydney–Perth railway, making rail travel from Perth to Sydney possible, the Indian Pacific rail service commenced soon after. During the 1890s, the Goldfields area boomed as a whole, with a population exceeding 200,000. The area gained a reputation for being a wild west with bandits. Places, famous or infamous, that Kalgoorlie is noted for include its water pipeline and its main street is Hannan Street, named after the towns founder. One of the infamous brothels also serves as a museum and is a national attraction. Kalgoorlie and the district was serviced by an extensive collection of suburban railways and tramways. On 20 April 2010, Kalgoorlie was shaken by a an earthquake that reached 5.0 on the richter scale, the epicentre was 30 km north east of the town. The quake caused damage to a number of hotels and historic buildings along Burt Street in Boulder. The entire Burt St. precinct was evacuated until 23 April, work in the Superpit and many other mines around Kalgoorlie was stopped. Two people suffered injuries as a result of the quake. Several police officers were injured during the riot and at least ten people were charged, Kalgoorlie–Boulder is a regional centre and has a Chamber of Commerce and a Chamber of Minerals and Energy

6.
Alice Springs
–
Alice Springs /ˌælᵻs ˈsprɪŋz/ is the third largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as the Alice or simply Alice, Alice Springs is situated roughly in Australias geographic centre. The area is known as Mparntwe to its inhabitants, the Arrernte. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Lady Alice Todd, Alice Springs has a population of 27,972, which makes up 8.7 percent of the territorys population. Alice Springs is nearly equidistant from Adelaide and Darwin, the town straddles the usually dry Todd River on the northern side of the MacDonnell Ranges. The surrounding region is known as Central Australia, or the Red Centre, the Aboriginal name for Alice Springs is Mparntwe. Many Arrernte people also live in communities outside of Alice Springs, three major groups, the Western, Eastern and Central Arrernte people live in Central Australia, their traditional land including the area of Alice Springs and MacDonnell Ranges. They have also referred to as Aranda, Arrarnta, Arunta. There are five dialects of the Arrernte language, South-eastern, Central, Arrernte country is rich with mountain ranges, waterholes and gorges, which create a variety of natural habitats. The numerous sites of importance in and around Alice Springs include Anthwerrke, Akeyulerre, Ntaripe, Atnelkentyarliweke. A white settlement was started ten years later with the construction of a station on the Overland Telegraph Line. The OTL was completed in 1872 and it traced Stuarts route and opened up the interior for permanent settlement. The Alice Springs Telegraph Station was sited near what was thought to be a permanent waterhole in the normally dry Todd River, the settlement was optimistically named Alice Springs after the wife of the former Postmaster General of South Australia, Sir Charles Todd. The Todd River was named after Sir Charles and it was not until alluvial gold was discovered at Arltunga,100 kilometres east of the present Alice Springs, in 1887 that any significant European settlement occurred. The towns first substantial building was the Stuart Town Gaol in Parsons Street which was built in 1909 when the town had a European population of fewer than 20 people, many of the gaols first prisoners were first contact aboriginal men incarcerated for killing cattle. The first aircraft, piloted by Francis Stewart Briggs landed in 1921, Central Australias first hospital, Adelaide House, was built in 1926 when the European population of the town was about 40. It was not until 1929 when the line to Alice was built. Aboriginal Centralians outnumbered European Centralians until the mid-1930s, until 31 August 1933, the town was officially known as Stuart

7.
Port Augusta
–
Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. It is a seaport and railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulfs head, the suburb of Port Augusta West is located on the west side of the gulf on the Eyre Peninsula. Other major industries included, up until mid-2010s, electricity generation, at June 2015, the estimated urban population was 14,214. The urban area consists of the following suburbs laid out from east to west - Port Augusta and Davenport on the side of Spencer Gulf. It is a harbour, which was founded on 24 May 1852 by Alexander Elder. Mr. Grainger was a member of Government from Adelaide, the port was named after Augusta Sophia, Lady Young, the wife of the Governor of South Australia, Sir Henry Edward Fox Young. According to the 2011 Census, the population of the Port Augusta census area was 13,504 people,50. 2% of the population were female,85. 2% are Australian born, over 88. 6% of residents are Australian citizens and 17. 3% were Aboriginal. The median weekly income is A$789 or more per week. 17. 4% of the population identify themselves as Catholic, while a higher 26. 2% identify with no religion at all, Spencer Gulf is a natural barrier to land transport, so Port Augusta has naturally become the crossroads of Australia. It is at the junction of road and rail links. Port Augusta is the end of the Eyre Highway to Perth. It is the end of the Augusta Highway to Adelaide. It is the end of the Stuart Highway to Darwin. All traffic across southern Australia passes through Port Augusta, in 1878, the town became the southern terminus of a proposed North South transcontinental line, headed for Darwin 2,500 km away. This 3 ft 6 in narrow gauge railway was taken over by the Commonwealth in 1910. In 1929, it was extended to its last terminus at Alice Springs, between 1913 and 1917, a 2,000 km long east–west transcontinental railway was built from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The standard gauge Adelaide-Darwin railway was completed in 2003. Port Augusta is a stop on the Indian Pacific transcontinental train service on the Sydney–Perth railway, one service a week for each train in each direction serve the station

8.
Meekatharra, Western Australia
–
Meekatharra is a town in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Meekatharra is a Yamatji word meaning place of little water, at the 2011 census, Meekatharra had a population of 812, with 47. 0% being of Aboriginal descent. Meekatharra is a supply centre for the pastoral and mining area in the Murchison region of Western Australia. It is located 764 km north-east of Perth and may be reached by the Great Northern Highway and it is a centre for sheep and cattle transshipment, initially by rail but now by road trains. It is also a home to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It is connected by public transport to Geraldton with connections to Perth via Transwa coach service N4, no viable horticultural industry exists in the area, although extensive but poor cattle stations in the Murchison and Gascoyne exist. Meekatharra underwent a significant gold rush during the boom of the 1980s. Exploration restarted in the area and St Barbara sold out to a known as Mercator Gold in October 2005. Mercator Gold then conducted a drilling programme and re-opened the mill. This mining phase however was short lived, with Mercator going into administration in October 2008, the company hopes to sell Bluebird in 2010. Meekatharra is a gold rush town. The Peak Hill mining town was founded in 1892 approximately 100 km up the road during this initial gold rush, success on the Meekatharra field was short-lived. It was only because a gold discovery occurred in 1899 that the town survived. In 1901 the Meekatharra State Battery began operation and by Christmas Day 1903 the township had been officially gazetted, in 1906 Alfred Wernam Canning was appointed to develop a stock route from the East Kimberley to the Murchison. The stock route, comprising 54 wells, was completed in 1908 and, when the arrived in Meekatharra in 1910. In many ways the railway ensured the towns survival, in 1910 it took the first shipment of wool out of the area and it continued to serve the local pastoral interests until it was closed down in 1978. The town and surrounding stations were isolated by flood waters in 1926 resulting in provisions in the town running low after supplies were unable to get through after a week. From 1927 until 1931, a line operated from Meekatharra to the manganese mine at Horseshoe

9.
Halls Creek, Western Australia
–
Halls Creek is a town situated in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is located between the towns of Fitzroy Crossing and Turkey Creek on the Great Northern Highway and it is the only sizeable town for 600 km on the Highway. Halls Creek is also the end of the Canning Stock Route. The town functions as a hub for the local indigenous population. Halls Creek is the centre for Halls Creek Shire Council. The land now known as Halls Creek has been occupied for thousands of years, the land is crossed by songlines and trading paths stretching from the coasts to the deserts, some passing near the modern town. The story of long occupation remains alive today and it is revealed in the culture of the Jaru, Kija, Kukatja, Walmajarri, Gooniyandi. Late in the 19th Century, Europeans arrived, searching for land for cattle and sheep, on Christmas Day 1885 prospector Charlie Hall found a huge 870-gram gold nugget at a site that would eventually be named after him. News of the discovery drew more than 15,000 people to what is now Old Halls Creek to try their luck and it proved an inhospitable land for these people and the graves of some can be found in Old Towns small cemetery. The gold rush lasted less than 3 months and Halls Creek became a centre for cattle stations, aboriginal communities. The post office with its line that terminated here, the police station, government office, racecourse. In 1918 the Australian Inland Mission built a hospital and the old town struggled on, short of inhabitants, in 1948 an airfield was built near the site of the present town and over the next decade the old town moved nearer to this new site. Except for the station, which finally relocated in 1961. It is home to the indigenous Jaru and Kija peoples as well as some Tjurabalan peoples from the desert to the south of the town, indigenous people represent over 70% of the towns population. In 2006, The West Australian newspaper ran a series of articles highlighting the living conditions and health of the Halls Creek indigenous population. However, Halls Creek is by no means unusual in this regard, with other towns and communities in the Pilbara, Kimberley. Prior to the introduction of a ban on the sale of alcohol it was estimated that many pregnant women in the town consumed alcohol, with nearly a third of babies suffering Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. In May 2009 the state Director of Liquor Licensing imposed a prohibition on the sale of packaged liquor with an alcohol content greater than 2.7 per cent from licensed premises in the town

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is an independent Australian …

A Sea of Hands outside the AIATSIS building on Acton Peninsula. The Sea of Hands was created in 2014 with the help of local communities, to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the National Apology to Australia's First Peoples, 2008.

The Guidelines for Ethical Research in Australian Indigenous Studies (GERAIS)

Chrissy Grant, Chair of the AIATSIS Research Ethics Committee, running a GERAIS workshop at AIATSIS, 2015

Part of the UNESCO listed Australian Indigenous Language collection held at AIATSIS

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin …

Image: Cardinal vowels Jones x ray

The authors of textbooks or similar publications often create revised versions of the IPA chart to express their own preferences or needs. The image displays one such version. Only the black symbols are part of the IPA; common additional symbols are in grey.